a judgment of those things wherein their corrupt Interest is opposed or immediately or remotely struck at For men cannot serve God and Mammon as there it follows they cannot be faithful to God and his Truth where a love to him and a care to please him do not bear a greater sway than love to Mammon or any other worldly concern doth Add we yet to all this one consideration more and that is That when men have more love for and pleasure in unrighteousness for worldly advantage sake than love to Truth for Truths sake and what attends a sincere receiving of it the Scripture hath told us that for that very cause God shall send such learned men not excepted strong delusions that they should believe a lie to think and believe verily they have fast hold of Truth when yet they have but a lie in their right hand 2 Thes 2.10 11 12. God in just judgment giving them up to an injudicious mind to call evil good and good evil These things shew how little in reason the consideration of the learning and parts of any of the Popish party ought to weigh with those who upon the account of them are inclined to entertain any whit the more favourable opinion of their way when they consider as they ought that their Learning and Parts are in conjunction with a corrupt Interest As for the Laity or Common people of the Popish perswasion I will not say that a worldly corrupt Interest doth so much prevail on them immediately to be or to continue to be what they are in point of Popery as it doth with their Clergie but at the Second hand it doth prevail on them also For they acting by an Implicite faith believing as their Church-men believe and seeing not with their own but with their eyes and taking all on trust from them and giving up themselves intirely to their Conduct it follows necessarily that if a corrupt Interest misguide their Guides they also must needs become seduced by means of it So that what was said to the people of Israel of old is truly applicable unto them O my people they which lead thee cause thee to err But that will be no excuse to them who suffer themselves to be so misled For if the blind lead the blind you know who hath said they both shall fall into the ditch Now if Popery shall be found indeed to be founded in a like secular carnal corrupt Interest as the corrupt Doctrine and Practice of the false Apostles was and whether it be or no I leave you to judge by what the following discourse offers you then that alone would be enough to blast the Reputation of it for ever in the minds of all such as have judgment in Spiritual things For by this very thing did St. John discriminate the false Teachers and Degenerate Christians and their way from the Orthodox and Sincere and their way They saith he are of the world therefore speak they of the world and the world heareth them 1 Jo. 4.5 6. They are of the world i. e. they were men of worldly minds and such as chiefly designed a worldly Interest they were such as did mind earthly things as it is elsewhere exprest Phil. 3.18 therefore they speak of the world i. e. the Doctrine which they taught so far as it was False was calculated to promote a worldly corrupt Interest And the world heareth them that is earthly minded men pretenders to Religion received their Doctrine as falling in with their worldly design But we saith St. John are of God he that knoweth God heareth us i. e. received their Doctrine which drew men off from the world to God He that is not of God heareth not us Hereby know we the Spirit of Truth and the Spirit of error behold here a plain Discrimination of who and whose way is of God and whose is not with whom the Spirit of Truth is found and with whom the Spirit of Error If the Authors of Popery then and their followers have adopted into their Religion as a part of it any corrupt Doctrine or Practice for worldly advantage sake as the false Teachers of old did then they we see as well as those false Teachers are markt out by St. John as being not of God but of the world and as men that are misguided by a Spirit of Errour And although by wresting the Scriptures and corrupting the Word of God they think to colour over and patronize their corrupt Doctrines and Practices just as the false Apostles before them did yet their Arguings thence are but of the same nature with the Reasonings of the false Apostles in like cases which were as St. Paul calls them but perverse disputings of men of corrupt minds destitute of the truth supposing that gain is godliness 1 Tim. 6.5 I have in the following Papers shewed how St. Paul's Complying with the Jews in some Rites of the Jewish worship upon account of Expedience was quite of a different nature from the corrupt Complyances of the false Apostles and their party And from that prudential and expediential complyance of his I have in an Appendix by parity of Reason argued the expediency of yielding to the use of some things in or about the external form of Gods Worship which are neither directly commanded nor forbidden by God when circumstances render such a yielding necessary to prevent Divisions in the Church and the bad Consequences of them and to preserve Peace and Charity in it and the better to further the free course of the Gospel And this I have done the rather lest any should think that such a yielding as aforesaid should be of like nature with those corrupt compliances of the false Apostles and their Party which are represented to view in the following Discourse As for those who have hitherto escaped the snares of Popery the proper use of the ensuing Tract for them is to fortifie them against all Temptations of turning Papists of what nature soever the Temptation may be Always remembring that such as follow the false Apostles in corrupting the Christian Religion to avoid Persecution or for any worldly advantage whatsoever must expect to share with them in their fate also of whom it is said their end shall be according to their works 2 Cor. 11.15 And since you will find by the process of the Discourse before you that the Corruptions both in Faith and Practice first in the false Apostles and their followers and after them in the Papists did arise and spring out of an inordinate love of the world the consideration thereof may serve as a Sea-mark to warn us to take heed of that Rock upon which so many professours of Christianity have made shipwrack of it This running into the Spirit of the World hath always been fatal to the Churches As it laid waste at last the once famous flourishing Churches of the Apostles own planting so it hath since deprest and kept many others very low in their
10. Love not the world nor the things of the world saith St. John to those who were in danger of being corrupted by the false Apostles through love to the world for if any man love the world the love of the Father is not in him For all that is in the world the lust of the flesh the lust of the eye and the pride of life is not of the Father but is of the world 1 John 2.15 16. Here 's a brief description of that love of the world which is disallowed by God and a snare of death to men The lust of the Eye is covetousness which is a transgression of the rule of righteousness or moderation in desiring or getting or the rule of Piety or Charity in keeping the things of this world The lust of the Flesh is a transgressing of the Laws of Sobriety Temperance and Chastity in using them And the pride of Life is a transgression of the Laws of Modesty and Humility in using undue means to draw honour and esteem from men Now then when St. John saith if any man love the world the love of the Father is not in him his meaning seems to be this that when any man lives in the breach of any of Gods Commandments in Coveting Getting Keeping or Using the things of this world that 's the man that so loves the world as that the love of the Father is not in him For as the love of God according to this Apostle consisteth in keeping his Commandments as he saith Chap. 5.3 This is the love of God that we keep his Commandments So the not loving the Father but the world consists in the breach of his Commandments in Coveting Getting Keeping or Using the friendship or the things of the world And thus the false Apostles were lovers of the world They were willing to be for God and the Gospel so long and so far as their being so did not deprive them of their worldly accommodations but wherein it did so that they could no longer serve two Masters God and Mammon without faultering with one of them then and in those particular cases when such a Competition did occur they were wont still to cleave to their worldly interest but to turn their back upon God and the Gospel For which cause they were compared to Esau and stiled prophane persons like him Heb. 12.16 For as Esau preferred so inconsiderable a thing as a mess of Pottage because of the presentness of the satisfaction he expected thereby before the far more desirable priviledges and benefits of Birth-right and Heirship because they for a great part at least were not to be received till afterwards So these lovers of and designers for this present world did chuse ease and other worldly accommodations because present rather than the better hope of eternal life because absent and to come This was the root of bitterness in the persons of Seducers against the springing up of which among the Christians the Author of this Epistle had cautioned them v. 15. At that time when the case was so that all that would live godly in Christ Jesus must suffer persecution there was no way of retaining a profession of Christianity and their worldly ease and enjoyments too but by corrupting the Christian Religion and making it another thing than the Author of it had made it which was the thing the false Apostles laboured to bring the Christians to under delusive pretences that they might save themselves from suffering which brings me to what is next to be discoursed and that is to shew how unworthily these false Teachers corrupted the Christian Religion to attain their worldly end and base design S. 2. The next thing then which as I said I proposed to shew was how in what way and by what means the false Apostles carried on their worldly design of which I have been speaking how in particular they ordered things in their profession of Christianity so as to secure their end and to serve their design for this world In doing of which I shall shew first that to this end they corrupted the Christian Religion by their sinful mixtures Secondly that they did this and carried on their whole design for the world under a Religious pretence First they corrupted the Christian Religion on purpose to serve their design They corrupted it partly by adding other things to it which were of a contrary nature and partly by sinister and corrupt interpretations of the Christian Doctrine and of the Scriptures of the Old Testament to countenance those additions either as lawful or as necessary And thus they abused the Scriptures touching the use of the Law of Moses by misconstruction and misapplication They would be esteemed for judicious teachers of the Law when they understood not what they said nor whereof they affirmed 1 Tim. 1.7 They taught Circumcision and the observation of other Rites of the Law of Moses to be necessary to the Salvation of Christian Gentiles when their doing so served their carnal design though otherwise they made no conscience of keeping the Law themselves For neither they themselves who are circumcised keep the Law but desire to have you circumcised that they may glory in your flesh said St. Paul of them Gal. 6.13 but more of this afterwards St. Peter also tells us that they wrested things in St. Paul's Epistles and other Scriptures to their own destruction They walked in craftiness and handled the word deceitfully as St. Paul reflects it upon them in 2 Cor. 4.2 and so he doth again when he saith we are not as many which corrupt the word of God 2 Cor. 2.17 By an unkindly violence which they offered to it they made it seemingly and in the eyes of weak and injudicious and credulous persons to countenance what they did in prosecution of their carnal design And although these false appearances were but slight and such as had nothing satisfying in them to an unprejudiced and discerning mind yet they would serve for demonstrations and pass for good proof with those who were willing and desirous to have those things prove true which the false Apostles pretended to be so Like as when the false Prophets of old prophesied falsly the people loved to have it so because it was for their carnal interest to have that prove true which they prophesied But this only in general But to come more particularly to the business and to shew how they corrupted the Christian Religion to save them from suffering and to compass their farther ends The sincere Christians were in great danger of suffering the loss of all the things of this world for Christ and the Gospel sake from two sorts of enemies to Christianity the unbelieving Jews and the unbelieving Gentiles To avoid which the False Apostles taught themselves first and others after somewhat to comply with these Enemies of Christianity in mixing somewhat of their Rites and Usages with it on purpose to take off the edge of that Opposition and Persecution
his mouth far from such a happy condition as they fancied themselves to be in This also probably was the condition of the Church of Sardis Rev. 3.1 except the few names in it that had not defiled their Garments with those pollutions into which the false Teachers had enticed others For though they had a name to live from that profession of the Gospel which they made yet were in a manner dead by degenerating and going back again in part into Gentilism or Judaism from which they had been delivered The loss of first love in the Church of Ephesus also as it 's very likely befell them by the deceiving of the false Teachers we speak of that drove a worldly design in professing the Gospel so as that it might not be too costly to them This St. Paul had foretold when he said to the Elders of that Church in Act. 20.29 30. I know this that after my departure shall grievous Wolves enter in among you not sparing the flock also of your own selves shall men arise speaking perverse things to draw away Disciples after them And he admonished them in his Epistle to them Chap. 4.14 That they would be no more children tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine by the slight of men and cunning craftiness whereby they lay in wait to deceive And again Chap. 5.6 Let no man deceive you with vain words c. Meaning doubtless in all this to arm them against and take them off from the insinuations temptations of false Teachers to draw them into sinful complyances to escape persecution Another hint of this nature we have in the close of his Epistle to them Chap. 6.24 where he saith Grace be with all them that love our Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity or with incorruption as it is in the Margin that is without mixing his Religion with any thing foraign to it or inconsistent with it for worldly ends as some had done Our Saviour in Revel 2.3 commends them for that at first they had born and had patience to suffer and for his names sake had laboured and had not fainted But then in the 5th ver he calls upon them to remember from whence they were fallen and to repent and do their first works They were now fallen from that love and zeal for Christ which at first they manifested to him in suffering for him called here their first love which now they had lost and had now found out an easier way but withall an impurer way of owning Christ and professing his Gospel Which change he admonisheth them to repent of and to return to their first love and zeal in keeping close to the truth and purity of the Christian Religion whatever the Issue of it might be as to this worlds concerns for these were their first works as appears by what was said before of them in the 3d. vers And those Christians that kept to this whatever it cost them were such as were said to be Virgins Virgin Christians that had not violated their chastity to Christ but followed the Lamb only whithersoever he went though he led them through fire and water Rev. 14.3 I the rather think that corrupt compliances through fear of suffering were the faults of those Five of these Seven Churches which came under reproof because that for which the other Two of Smyrna and Philadelphia are commended and not censured at all was their courage for and constancy in the truth of the Gospel in the midst of danger impoverishing and trouble because of it Rev. 2.9 10. I know thy works and tribulation and poverty but thou art rich Fear none of those things which thou shalt suffer Rev. 3.8.10 Thou hast a little strength and hast kept my word and hast not denied my name Because thou hast kept the word of my patience I also will keep thee from the hour of temptation that shall come upon all the world to try them Besides the promise in the close of every one of the Seven Epistles made to him that overcometh together with the other subject matters of them argues that the being overcome and prevailed with to do unworthily through fear of suffering was the sin of some and the temptation dangerous to all of them S. 11.2 Having shewed you how the false Apostles carried on their design of securing their worldly concerns in their profession of the Christian Religion by corrupting it I shall now come to shew how they did it under a show and pretence of Religion which was the last thing I proposed to insist on concerning them and their ill design This course taken by them of setting off what they did herein with a shew and pretence of being very Religious in it was nothing but what our Saviour had foretold would come to pass premonishing his Disciples to take heed of being deceived hereby when he said Beware of false Prophets which come to you in sheeps clothing but inwardly they are ravening Wolves Mat. 7.15 They could not carry on their design alone without making a party among them that professed the Gospel nor that but under a Religious pretence And a party they did make to join with them in it by such means as I shall now briefly instance in 1. They did it by obtaining the reputation among many of being the Ministers of Christ yea perhaps of being the Apostles of Christ which indeed some of them pretended themselves to be Which was of great advantage to them it being no hard matter for them to corrupt those with whom they obtained such a reputation and to draw them in to fide with them in their design For when once the people came to esteem them the Ministers and Messengers of Christ as well as Paul and other Apostles the false Apostles then came to have a great advantage thereby of drawing them off from those that were the Ministers of Christ indeed and of bringing them under their own conduct because their doctrine tended to secure them from that persecution and loss of worldly enjoyments which the doctrine of the true Apostles when followed exposed them to And if the people could be brought to give as much credit to the doctrine of the false Apostles as to that of the true as they must if they believed them to be true Apostles though they were not then they could be in no doubt which to follow for they would then certainly follow them who as they believed taught them how to keep this world and yet obtain that which is to come too rather than them who taught them to run almost a certain hazard of this that they might obtain the next And it was because of this advantage that they had the persons of the false Apostles in admiration Jude 16. Now that they pretended themselves to be the Ministers of Christ and not only so but that they were esteemed so to be by a party appears by that of St. Paul where he saith in his own vindication
these men For as those were desirous to have the people sin that they might have the more Sin-offerings So these are willing we see that the people should have liberty allowed them to sin provided they will but buy the more Indulgences and Dispensations And such likewise is their doctrine of Assuring men of pardon when they are going out of the world tho' they have lived never such wicked and vicious lives before upon condition of Contrition and Confession to a Priest Yea upon condition of that Confession and Attrition alone which as they define it is a grief for sin arising only from a fear of Hell And I should think no wicked man that believes or fears that there is a Hell can lightly be without such a sorrow at last And if men could be made to believe or hope that they may keep their sins and yet be pardoned at least upon such easie terms as we see they are taught to believe they may it would then be matter of wonder that there is no more rather than that there are so many Papists in the world Such doctrine as this is doubtless the reason why now and then some profligate persons and so many Thieves and Murderers when condemned to die turn Papists that were no better than practical Atheists before S. 23.8 And yet lest their loose principles and practices should render them too much suspected for Irreligious they just as the false Apostles before them would seem to be even more devout in some things than the purer Christians that oppose them in their carnal designs And therefore they have imposed upon themselves and their Votaries certain things as parts of Religion which God hath not made so and are more careful to observe them than what God hath commanded as the Pharisees before them were in reference to their traditions Such is their abstaining from some sorts of meats upon such and such dayes not upon a Civil account which may lawfully be done but upon a Religious account And it 's well if at least many of them do not make more conscience of eating flesh on a Fryday than to swear or lie The exercising certain severities upon their own bodies at certain set times of the year by way of Penance the restraining those that are in Religious Orders from Marriage the Vows of Poverty and Single life are also things of like nature with those which the false Teachers in the Apostles times imposed upon their Proselytes as I have shewed And so was the worshipping of Angels a thing which these Popish Christians also teach Nay they pretend to make show of such great love to Christ more than others do as that for his sake they worship such as are related to him as the blessed Virgin Mary and other Saints And not only so but to worship his very Picture and to have in sacred esteem the very Reliques of his servants or those which they esteem to be so Like the Pharisees of old who builded the Tombs of the dead Prophets and garnished the Sepulchres of the Righteous that were dead when at the same time they persecuted those that were living as these also have done By such arts as these they have made a covering such as it is for their Irreligious designs by which they have deluded people of gross minds that are influenced by sense in the way of Religious worship as Superstitious and Idolatrous persons alwayes have been but have misapprehensions of the Nature of God and of that Spiritual worship which is agreeable to his Nature and acceptable to him Which also makes them think that the eating of Christ's Flesh and the drinking of his Blood in the Sacrament in a natural and proper sence is that which is available like the Capernaumites who said how can this man give us his Flesh to eat understanding him in a gross sence when he had said to them The bread that I will give is my flesh which I will give for the life of the world And except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink his blood ye have no life in you Joh. 6. Moreover to raise yet the greater opinion in the people of the goodness of their way they ingross the whole of true Christianity to themselves stiling those and those only of their way the Catholique Church denying Salvation to belong to those that are not of it accounting them Hereticks Herein likewise following the guise of the false Apostles and their Disciples who laboured to ingross to themselves the name and reputation of the most Knowing and most Spiritual separating from the rest of Christians as if they themselves only had been the true Church thereby to put the better colour upon their corrupting the Christian Religigion and the worldly end for which they did it S. 24.9 And then to fill the Churches treasuries and to draw to themselves the wealth of the world and thereby to support all their glory and grandeur and to glut themselves with sensual pleasures and delights they have used other methods and Arts also One of which is the doctrine of the Merit of good works For when the people are made to believe that they may by good works Almsdeeds and Donations to pious uses make satisfaction to God procure exemption from Purgatory and merit Heaven and by abounding in them may supererogate and not only merit enough for themselves but have to spare for others Then it is no hard matter to persuade them to be very liberal and kind to their Ghostly Fathers while they live being to them in Gods stead to pardon them and to leave a considerable part of their estates to the Church when they die The forbidding Marriage to the Clergy serves to the same end also which may be one reason of that restraint For when they especially those of the higher degree that have great Estates can leave no Children lawfully begotten to inherit who is likelier to be their Heir than the Church especially considering that the Canon Law allows not Regular Bishops to dispose of their Estates by Will Another device to get money is the Tax of the Apostolick-Chancery a grant by several Popes of Pardons at such and such a price for thousands of years though their sins be of a deep die It is true there are I must needs say very good peniworths to be had if the Ware be not counterfeit One may have that for 18 Pence 2 Shillings or half a Crown that a man would give all he is worth for be it never so much were he sure he should not be cheated in his purchase But as for all those that have faith enough to believe the Infallibility of the Popes in assuring them of Pardons at such cheap rates and if they question it in this they may question it in all the rest methinks there should not one of them fail to buy one of these Pardons that can go to the price of them and who cannot And if so who can count
Spiritual state and is of ill abode as to their future standing And there is so much the more danger of falling into an undue and destructive love of the things of this world because we have need of them daily use them familiarly converse with them and because men generally are very unable to discern the parting difference between a lawful and unlawful degree of love to them and so are very apt insensibly to pass over from the one into the other And therefore there is great reason to be jealous of our affections in this respect and diligent to observe their motion and manner of operation towards the world and continually to be following them with considerations that all the things of this world are at best but Temporal and useful only for a little season and that our main Concern lies in the things of another world that are for Eternity in comparison of which the things of this World are of no weight when a judgment and estimate of both is rightly made By the Knowledge Belief and practical consideration of this it was that the Holy Apostles and all sincere Christans then did overcome the world when their worldly and spiritual their temporal and eternal Interest came in competition This is the victory that overcometh the world even our faith saith St. John 1 Ep. 5.4 And though our outward man perish yet the inward man is renewed day by day while we look not at the things which are seen but the things which are not seen for the things which are seen are temporal but the things which are not seen are eternal saith St. Paul 2 Cor. 4.16 18. And it was by that saith which is the Substance or confident expectation of things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen by which Abraham Moses and the rest of those Worthies in elder times became such famous instances of overcoming the world as they were Heb. 11. And our blessed Saviour for the Joy that was set before him endured the Cross and despised the shame yea and contemned the Grandeur of the world too when he was tempted thereby to that which was incongruous to the end of his coming If any shall think the publishing of these papers might well be spared considering the many transcending pieces against Popery which are already extant I confess I should have thought so too especially considering the Author had it not been that the way of proceeding against Popery used therein by comparing it with the corrupt Religion of the false Apostles hath not so far as I have observed been much made use of by others unless only in some glances which look that way And yet what can expose Popery more to the dislike even of every vulgar apprehension than to discover its likeness to the Religion of the false Apostles who preached Christ indeed as these of this way also do but they did it not sincerely but added to and mixt with the doctrine and Religion of Christ and that as necessary to Salvation things of quite a different nature and contrary tendency even as these likewise do Phil. 1.15 16. Besides as by discovering the true nature of the corrupt Religion of the false Apostles and their Proselytes a thing which is endeavoured in the following discourse we may take measure of and estimate the nature of Popery when we find as we may a likeness between them So perhaps the Readers of more ordinary Capacities may find such further benefit thereby as to come to a better understanding of many places and passages in the Holy Apostles Epistles relating to the way of false Teachers as without knowing in some measure what the corrupt Principles and Practices of the false Apostles were and their ill effects in the Churches can hardly be understood And if that may though nothing else should be gained thereby yet that alone I hope would in some measure recompence the pains of such Readers in perusing the said discourse From which I shall detain them no longer this being all I have to say by way of preface craving their pardon for the length of it THE MYSTERY OF INIQUITY UNFOLDED BY a collection of sundry passages scattered up and down in the Writings of the Holy Apostles of our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ it may easily be discerned how and for what end and under what pretence the false Apostles in the Primitive times corrupted the Christian Religion And by comparing here-with the Christian Religion as now corrupted by Popery together with its end and design and the pretence under which it hath been managed by the Authors of it and Guides of the people of that perswasion those that halt between two opinions in the Case to be enquired into and that have any desire to be led into the way of Truth on which hand soever it falls may easily come to a clear Resolution and full satisfaction who are in the error the Papists or the Protestants In order to the Comparison thus to be made and to the satisfaction that is thereby to be attained I must represent to you from the Scriptures these two things 1. What the design of the false Apostles was in managing the Christian profession to so ill purpose as they did 2. In what way and by what means they carried on their design After I have done this I shall draw the Parallel between the false Apostles and Authors of Popery and shew how the Authors of Popery have followed the false Apostles in both End and Means S. 1. I shall begin with the first of these and shew what the design of the false Apostles was in managing the Christian profession so unchristianly as they did And to make way for the better understanding of that I shall briefly touch upon the Rise of them and the occasion of it The sincere profession of Christianity being attended at the first and for a long time after with sore persecution there were some of that Profession and probably Teachers too who being neither willing wholly to relinquish it nor yet to suffer so much as a faithful and thorough adherence to the doctrine and precepts of the Gospel did expose men to did cast about how they might retain a profession of the Gospel and yet avoid any great or considerable suffering for it And in conclusion resolved upon this viz. to Comply with their Adversaries in some things pertaining to the Religion and way which they profest of which I shall speak more particularly afterwards whereby they took off the keenness of their opposition and provided for their own ease and security Some pretences they found out for so doing wherewith they endeavoured to satisfie themselves and others as well as they could whom they laboured to draw in to make a party Just as St. Paul foretold the Elders of the Church of Ephesus saying Of your own selves shall men arise speaking perverse things to draw away Disciples after them Acts 20.30 And being opposed herein by the faithful Apostles